This episode features an interview with Spanish filmmaker and documentarian Alba Sotorra. Alba's latest film, Commander Arian, follows the title character and her journey alongside the Women's Protection Unit in Syria (the YPJ)—an all-female militia fighting to liberate the city of Kobane from ISIS. Alba chats with Mica about how these women are fighting for their right to exist, how they earn freedom on the frontlines, and why it's so important to solidarize with Syrian women. As Alba says, their fight is our fight, too.
Reading Room
Writing about us is a way to finally claim what happened as my truth, a space which is mine, where he can’t tell me what to feel. A moment, two years too late, of recognition. To say, without compromise or shame, I loved him. And he abused me. You don’t have to believe me. I don’t need him to read the emails. I just want to look in the mirror, see the girl staring back at me, and let her know that I’m sorry.
On Nov. 8th just before midnight, I began to disappear.
The Honourable Mention in our Winter 2017–2018 Short Forms Contest.
Picture the girl. See her pull the black cardigan closed in a tight fist as she shoves the heavy door open with her shoulder. The warm evening air hits her like a slap in the face. As she steps out onto the sidewalk and sees the sunset bleeding orange and pink, broad streaks of red and purple, she thinks, That’s it. Childhood is over.
The anonymous woman in bed beside me adamantly shakes my shoulder. She had a name last night. She must have, as part of my hook-and-line I complimented her “pretty name” and said, “it suits you.” Unless a woman’s name is Mavis, I normally compliment her pretty name.
Currently on Newsstands
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Room 41.1, Family Secrets
Edited by Rachel ThompsonIn this issue:
Jennifer Amos, Fenn Archdekin-Leung, Jenn Ashton, Jamelie Bachaalani, Colleen Baran, Jenny Bartoy, Alexandra Chang, Kristina Corre, Maggie de Vries, Shirley Harshenin, Jia Hwang, Sharon Jinkerson-Brass, Elizabeth Johnston, Tamara Jong, Manal Kamran, Carrianne Leung, Lily Leung, Mary MacDonald, Alissa McArthur, Cosi Nayovitz, Margaret Nowaczyk, Deanna Partridge-David, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Rebekah Rempel
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Interview Room
On May 1, 2018, the call for Issue 42.1 "Magic" opened. In anticipation of this exciting themed issue, the editorial team of the issue share some thoughts about their connection to the theme, what they're looking for in submissions, and recommendations for ways to live your reading life (and every day) more magical.
Spring may not have sprung wherever you are, but at least we have Room 41.4 to look forward to. This is your chance to be published alongside Kim Fu, author of For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore and an interview with Ayana Mathis, whose novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie was selected for Oprah’s Book Club. Don’t forget to submit your best writing on any theme before April 30, 2018! Underrepresented writers—including but not limited to women and nonbinary writers who are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, queer and/or disabled—are especially encouraged to submit.
An interview with Renée Sarojini Saklikar, author of children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections (Nightwood Editions, 2013), which won the Canadian Authors Award for poetry and was short-listed for the Dorothy Livesay Award.
Reviews
Shit, like its protagonists, is imperfect and unapologetic—and fantastically entertaining.
You may not attend a comedy show in hopes of being taken on an emotional ride other than that of laughing so hard you cry; however, The Lady Show delivers powerful performances filled with commentary and satire.
Echoing the cinematic flare of films like Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, Handsome Devil shows the complicated nature of being a teenager without overplaying its hand.
Room with a View
Lit Mag Love Episode 16: Take Notice (Donna Talarico, Hippocampus Magazine)
“I’ve just become better at noticing those little mechanical things,” says the guest for this episode, Donna Talarico, the founder and publisher of Hippocampus Magazine. Hippocampus makes memorable creative nonfiction. It is an online journal, a conference, and most recently a publishing house.
Cover Art Contest 2017: Honourable Mention
Congratulations to June Barrage, our 2017 Cover Art Contest Honourable Mention!
